If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -This paper aims to contribute to the literature and practice on beginning principal socialization by identifying the features of post-industrial work that create a more complex work environment for the practice and learning of the principalship in the USA. Design/methodology/approach -Based on recent literature on the changing nature of work, the paper applies those features of complexity to components of beginning principal socialization. Findings -The nature of work in post-industrial society and the changes in education, including a knowledge society, technology, demographic changes, and public accountability increase the complexity for US school principals. These features provide an important conceptual and normative basis for understanding and changing the content, sources, methods, and outcomes of beginning principal socialization. Originality/value -The paper contributes a set of conceptual and normative features that strengthens the understanding of how beginning principals learn the role.

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This article is a summary of a report prepared for the University Council for Educational Administration Program Improvement Project for the Wallace Foundation. This explores the research base for educational leadership preparation programs, specifically examining literature on program features. The review covers context, candidates, faculty, curriculum, design, delivery, pedagogy, internships, student assessment, mentoring and coaching, comprehensive leadership development, and program evaluation. In addition to summarizing the major findings in these program feature areas, the article provides a critical evaluation of the substantive and methodological gaps and future research directions.

The headteacher's role in school improvement and the changing nature of the role suggest the need to investigate how new school leaders learn their jobs, that is, their socialization to the leader role. This study has two purposes: (1) to identify the content and methods used in the professional and organizational socialization experiences of new English headteachers; and (2) to examine how headteachers perceive that these socialization processes affect their roles as headteachers. The study is based on a longitudinal, multi-case study of primary headteachers during their second and third years. The study found that the new headteachers experience what they referred to as traumatic first-year experiences, which involved management issues. They also had to learn how to form important relationships and how to develop self-learning. This learning occurred through professional, organizational and personal socialization methods and reinforced the important role of mentors, teachers, deputies and former headteachers. The study reinforces the need to further examine how new school leaders learn their jobs in complex, reform environments. K E Y W O R D S complexity, leader learning, leader preparation, school leaders

Teacher involvement strategies have become an important part of educational reform. Work group enhancement, although less used than individual approaches, is gaining attention in reform efforts and research investigations. Hackman and Oldham’s model on work group effectiveness provides a useful conceptual framework for understanding the nature of interdisciplinary teacher teams. This article reports on a study of interdisciplinary teacher teams during the 2nd year of implementation of teaming in a middle school. Based on observational and interview data, the study identifies the major context, design (structure), and process features of each of the four teams in the school. The article also provides a discussion of implications for practice and research in the area of collaborative teaching reforms.

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Restructuring schools requires a new conception of the role of principal. Institutions which train potential administrators are confronted with how best to help them conceive their new role in a way that facilitates restructuring. If we are to reform schools successfully, we need to understand how individuals, in the process of moving from novice to professional, change their conception of the role.This article reports on a study of candidates in a non-traditional principal preparation programme in order to examine the socialization process of developing a conception of the role. Because the programme was designed to train principals to lead restructured schools, the socialization process focused on developing innovative rather than custodial conceptions of the role[1-3].The article begins with a review of the research context on role conception and professional socialization, then describes the methodology and reports the findings. The article concludes with implications for training principals and for research on the socialization of principals. Research contextThe following review of literature is organized in terms of four questions: Why is the principal's role conception important? What are the sources of role conceptions? What are the components of a role conception? What is the process of socialization to a new role conception?Before examining literature that emphasizes its importance, we will define role conception from two perspectives: societal and individual. The societal perspective defines role conception as an image of a profession as seen by the community at large or the occupational community in which the profession exists [4,5]. This image consists of "shared beliefs about the meaning and mission of occupational group membership in relation to society'' [6].The second approach to defining role conception is from the individual's perspective. Becker and Carper[7], Davis[8], and Hughes[9] identify the A version of this article was presented at the annual conference of the University Council for